GALION — On a frigid Thursday afternoon, the Galion Tigers swim teams welcomed the squads from Harding and Jonathan Alder to the YMCA to compete in a tri-meet.
The Galion boys team swam their way to a clean sweep of their opponents, earning 122 points to outlast Harding (64) and Alder (5). With the win, the Tigers improve to 6-1 on the season.
Caleb Strack, Luke Eisnaugle, Clay Karnes and Sam Rigdon started off the meet for the boys with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, taking first place with a time of 1:49.11. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Rigdon, Eisnaugle and Karnes were joined by Weston Rose for a first place finish in 1:40.90. The final event of the day, the 400-free relay saw Strack, Alec Dicus, Braxton Tate and Rose winning with a time of 3:56.32.
Karnes and Dicus would also swim to two individual event victories on Thursday. Karnes would earn the top spot in the 200-free (2:00.82) and the 100-yard butterfly (59.51) while Dicus claimed first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:19.61) and the 500-free (5:23.19).
Rigdon, Rose, Strack and Eisnaugle would round out the Galion victories in the individual events. Rigdon edged teammate Strack in the 50-free; 23.63 to 23.82. Rose would, in turn, edge Rigdon in the 100-free; 53.35 to 53.47. Strack would pick up the win over in the 100-yard backstroke by more than half of a minute over the Alder swimmer (59.04). Eisnaugle was the top finisher in the final individual event, the 100-yard breaststroke, completing the race in 1:11.79.
Other placements for Galion’s boys were: Dicus, Tate, Issac Niedermier and Chris Amick- 200-medley relay, 2nd; Niedermier, Amick, Drew Owens and Wyatt Enders- 200-free relay, 3rd; Rose- 200-free, 2nd; Eisnaugle- 200-IM, 2nd and Tate- 500-free, 2nd and 100-breast, 2nd.
It was a much closer battle over on the girls side but the Lady Tigers outlasted the Lady Pioneers; 70-69. The Prexies were third with 60 total points. Galion is now an even 3-3 on the season.
The Lady Tigers picked up one relay win and two individual wins on the day en route to the narrow victory.
Ashleigh Wright, Sari Conner, Allison DeNero and Elise Barnhart finished in first place in the opening event, the 200-medley relay, with a time of 2:12.66. Conner and DeNero would earn the two individual wins with Conner snagging first in the 200-free (2:24.63) and DeNero winning the 50-free in 27.71.
DeNero and Conner were the first, two legs of the runner-up 200-free relay team, joined by Elise Barnhart and Danielle Schneider (1:58.05). Schneider and Wright teammed up with Bri Streib and Katlyn Kuehlman to take the second spot in the 400-free relay with a time of 5:11.67. Over in the 200-free relay, the Lady Tigers second foursome of Allison Bauer, Kennedy Gifford, Streib and Kuehlman snagged fifth to earn two points for Galion.
Other individual event placements for Galion were: Schneider- 200-free, 2nd and 500-free 4th; Barnhart- 50-free, 3rd and 100-free, 3rd; DeNero- 100-fly, 2nd; Conner- 100-free, 2nd; Wright- 500-free, 3rd and 100-back, 3rd and Kuehlman- 100-breast, 4th.
The Tigers will be at the Marion YMCA on Saturday, January 6 for the Mount Gilead Division II Invite. Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference competition will continue on Monday, January 8 when Galion hosts the visiting teams from Pleasant.
